Watchdog: 2 Syrian chemical weapons facilities destroyed

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The global chemical weapons watchdog says it has destroyed two Syrian chemical weapons facilities and expects the destruction of all 12 facilities to be completed this summer.

Ahmet Uzumcu, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said in his monthly report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Monday by The Associated Press that a special remote monitoring system used by the U.N. nuclear agency will be installed in the five underground facilities.

The destruction is key to eliminating Syria's chemical weapons program.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a letter accompanying the report that the work of an OPCW fact-finding mission, which concluded in early February "with a high degree of confidence" that three villages in northern Syria were attacked with chlorine, "is ongoing."